Feminine Independence and Empowerment
The opening sentence firmly and unapologetically introduces this theme by declaring that the small village of Cranford is “in possession of the Amazons.” By “in possession of” the author means the “spinsters” who make up the bulk of the population. By “Amazon” she is engaging female readers and warning any male readers not to underestimate the strength, resolve, intellect and emotional control of these widows and single women who never married. At no point is it ever implied nor could it be inferred by an attentive reader that these women are missing anything that a man could supply, except for the occasion reference to their brute strength.
Equality
Cranford enjoys an equality absent from communities where men run things. The nature of the control which is required to maintain this equality is exhibited most effectively through the voluntary implementation of what they term their “elegant economy” which is a deceptively ambiguous term for a system that basically has just two rules: you don’t flaunt your wealth in public and you keep your complaints about your poverty behind closed doors. Thusly, the women of Cranford dictate treatment of each other outside any false imposition of class based solely on financial status. This equality is made most manifest with the arrival of Lady Glenmire into their midst. Equally impressed and wary of the titled woman at first, she quickly becomes one of them with her demonstration of qualities native to the commoner. Indeed, ultimately, she is rejected when her common quality is ultimately viewed as vulgar tastes and vulgarity is one of the biggest sins that can be committed in Cranford. The suggestion is that women are more naturally able to treat each other as equals than men because they share the commonality of not being treated equal in society with even the worst men.
The Ending of an Age
At times, the portrait of the women in Cranford appears to be a nostalgic one capable of missing some of the simpler qualities of the era. At other times in less obvious manner, the quaint quality of the age appears to be fodder for ironic commentary. That both should be true simultaneously is not surprising since a major theme is the coming destruction of this way of life by the forces of the Industrial Revolution. Two of the Amazons—two sisters—are the situated as the symbol of how external forces controlled by men can serve to ruin a life in the blink of an eye. The conflicting perspectives is also embodied in the narrator: a woman who comes from the nearby commercial town of Drumble, therefore representing both the interests of old-fashioned socialism on one hand and the arrival of capitalism on the other. In addition, while the nostalgic point of view can be applied to the way women in Cranford behave, the attempts to keep up the façade of nothing having changed as a result of sudden economic deprivation underscores the ironic qualities of such a way of life.
